Great Books Program Reading List
Said Gawain, merry of cheer, ‘Whether fate be foul or fair, Why falter I or fear? What should man do but dare?’
Please note that it is important that all students have the same editions of the texts in order to better facilitate class discussions about the books we study.
First Year Literature
The Poetics, by Aristotle. (Handouts will be provided.)
Theogony, by Hesiod, Translated by Richard Caldwell
Homeric Hymns, Translated by Nicholas Richardson (Penguin Edition)
The Iliad, by Homer, Translated by Richmond Lattimore
The Odyssey, by Homer, Translated by Richmond Lattimore
Greek Lyric Poetry. Translated by M. L. West (Oxford World Classics)
Greek Tragedies: Volume I, Edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore
Greek Tragedies: Volume II, Edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore
Greek Tragedies: Volume III, Edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore
First Year History
The Landmark Herodotus, Translated by Robert B. Strassler
The Landmark Thucydides, Translated by Robert B. Strassler
Plutarch’s Lives, Selections. This is available online at https://classics.mit.edu
First Year Philosophy
Isagoge by Porphyry the Phoenician, Translated by E. W. Warren
The Categories by Aristotle. (Handouts will be provided.)
The Physics by Aristotle. (Handouts will be provided.)
Handouts will be provided for readings of the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, Archimedes, the Astronomers, and Modern Physics.
First Year Latin
Cambridge Latin Course, North American 4th Edition. We use Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 depending on the level of the students.
Second Year Literature
The Aeneid, by Virgil, Translated by Robert Fitzgerald
The Eclogues, by Virgil, Translated by Guy Lee (Penguin Edition)
On Duties, by Cicero, Translated by Walter Miller (Loeb Classical Library No. 30)
On Friendship, by Cicero, Translated by W. A. Falconer (Loeb Classical Library No. 154)
The Complete Odes and Epodes, by Horace, Translated by David West (Oxford World Classics)
Metamorphoses, by Ovid, Translated by A. D. Melville (Oxford World Classics)
The Divine Comedy, Volume I, Inferno, by Dante, Translated by Mark Musa (Penguin Edition)
The Divine Comedy, Volume II, Purgatory, by Dante, Translated by Mark Musa (Penguin Edition)
The Divine Comedy, Volume III, Paradise, by Dante, Translated by Mark Musa (Penguin Edition)
Second Year History
The Early History of Rome, by Livy, Translated by Aubret De Selincourt (Penguin Edition)
The Rise of the Roman Empire, by Polybius, Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin Edition)
The Conquest of Gaul, by Caesar, Translated by S. A. Handford (Penguin Edition)
The Annals of Imperial Rome, by Tacitus, Translated by Michael Grant (Penguin Edition)
Plutarch’s Lives Volumes I and II, Translated by John Dryden and Edited by Arthur Hugh Clough (Modern Library Classics Edition)
The Age of the Martyrs: Christianity from Diocletian (284) to Constantine (337), by Abbot Giuseppe Ricciotti (Tan Edition)
Second Year Philosophy
Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas, Black Friars Edition. This is available online at newadvent.org. (Handouts will be provided.)
Second Year Latin
Cambridge Latin Course, North American 4th Edition. We use Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 depending on the level of the students.
Third Year Literature
Beowulf, Translated by J.R.R. Tolkien
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Translated by J.R.R. Tolkien (Handouts will be provided.)
The Knight’s Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer. (Handouts will be provided.)
The Poetic Edda, Translated by Carolyne Larrington (Oxford World Classics Edition)
The Saga of the Volsungs, Translated by Jesse L. Byock (Penguin Classics Edition)
Paradise Lost, by John Milton (any edition)
Apart from the works listed here, we will also be reading many other texts of Old English literature, Middle English literature, Celtic literature, and poetry from the English Renaissance for which we will be providing handouts for all the students.
Third Year History
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, by Bede, Translated by D. H. Farmer
The Confessions, by St. Augustine, Translated by Henry Chadwick
The Rule of St. Benedict, Translated by Caroline White (Penguin Classics)
The Song of Roland, Translated by Dorothy Sayers (Handouts will be provided.)
Utopia, by St. Thomas More (Penguin Classics)
Third Year Theology: Sacred Scripture
The Holy Bible (either the Revised Standard Version or the Douay-Rheims Version)
The Didache Series: Understanding the Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Study, by Scott Hahn
Third Year Latin
Cambridge Latin Course, North American 4th Edition. We use Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 depending on the level of the students.
Fourth Year Literature and Music
Any edition of the complete works of Shakespeare, or the individual plays we will be studying in class (please see syllabus)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (any edition)
The Four Quartets, by T. S. Eliot (any edition)
Music Theory, by Jonathan E. Peters
Handouts will be provided for all other authors we will be studying in class.
Fourth Year History
The Didache Series: The History of the Church: A Complete Course. This can be purchased from the Midwest Theological Forum here
Fourth Year Theology
The Didache Semester Series Volume II-The Blessed Trinity and Our Christian Vocation
(published in 2009, not to be confused with the more truncated “Parish Edition” published in 2011)
The Didache Semester Series Volume IV-The Church: Sacrament of Salvation (published in 2010, not to be confused with the more truncated “Parish Edition” published in 2013)
Fourth Year Latin
Cambridge Latin Course, North American 4th Edition. We use Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 depending on the level of the students.